How to Keep Kids Safe Online

Last month, a bunch of high-powered researchers issued a much-anticipated report on children's Internet safety.

The Harvard University-led Internet Safety Technical Task Force concluded that technology ranging from age verification to filtering won't necessarily help make the Internet more safe for our darling tots. The results, while true, don't do much to allay most parents concerns.

Although the Internet is an integral part of most Americans' everyday life, we as a society are still struggling to figure out how to navigate a world where every danger imaginable — from predators to porn to that infernal "Chocolate Rain" video — lurks mere mouse-clicks away from our children.

So it's disappointing to find out that the experts have decreed all of the options for a safer Internet to be fatally flawed. To find some constructive advice, I decided to wade through the 278-page report, as well as to do some of my own research.

The first thing I found was that software programs like Net Nanny, which aim to filter inappropriate content, are still a good first line of defense. Their text-based filters can alert you when your child gets an instant-message soliciting sex or asking if his parents are at home.